Cruising Temp

Man, Reno sure is a tease.   It likes to make you eat these 95 degree days and then will ease you into a nice 70 degree day.  Then, the following week, it's friggin' 90 again.   But when it does get to about 70, you know this is perfect driving temperature for the Beast.   For some reason, the Beast has been extremely responsive, smooth driving and starts on the first couple of turns.

So, while I have the hood open, I wanted show some of the "fixes" I have done to get things working.

First one is the kickdown fix.
The screw wasn't long enough to make contact when the throttle was all the way open.  I couldn't find a screw that fit...so  I put a rubber hose on the screw that was just about 1/2 inch longer.  It works flawlessly!

The screw pictured in the middle is supposed to be pressed on by the throttle.  But it is too short.

We will just pop this rubber tube on here and..

Boom.  Kickdown screw/tube works perfectly.

Second 'fix':  Getting the Air Cleaner fixture to fit over the electric choke on the carb.
Solution: Take a hammer and hit that shit until it fits.  What, no one will see it?  So why not?

I am pointing at where I smashed things.

Now it fits!  Sometimes finesse isn't really my strong point.

Exhaust leak?
I thought the collectors were not fastened tight enough.  I tried to tighten them up to 35ft-lbs but I still felt a bit of exhaust coming out.  It turns out, It was coming from the weld seams.  just a little.   So Jim got me a present; some exhaust leak goop.  After slathering a bunch of that stuff on, it seems to have remedied the problem for now.    Of course I don't have a picture because I was in a hurry to get back inside to catch some football.

Not necessarily a fix but here is a picture of the electric fuel pump.  I have it on the back side of the car, just on the other side of the back seat.

Finally, this was the view this morning as I was patching some exhaust leaks.  The family dog, Zoe was just on the other side of the car, supervising my sloppy patch job.

I'm still saving up for the FAST EZ-EFI solution but I might need to snag a new starter too because today, it was giving me major grief.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great weekend.  I'll catch you all up next weekend if anything changes!

The Beast weighs in

I had fun this Friday.  Jim acquired a set of scales so him and Jacob decided to weigh everything. So I got to see the Beast's weight distribution and total weight.

Total weight: 4451 freakin pounds of mostly metals.  The mini-shop I keep in the trunk probably contributed about 100 lbs as well.

Speaking of the Beast, she drives amazingly well in cooler temperatures so I'll be sure to get a lot more driving out of it the following weeks.

In other news, I'm currently saving up for an EZ-EFI system; most likely FAST or MSD's version of it.  I'm kind of over the carburetor mess and just want something that not only auto-tunes but logs my driving sessions as well.  This will be a while but I think that will be my next big thing to spend money on.

Interesting note between FAST and FAST 2.0; after watching their promo video they state that if you run a car below 650HP and on gasoline, your best bet is to stick with regular FAST.  So if  I decide to go with them, that will save me about 400 dollars.

Following that will be a back-end rebuild.  I need two legs on the ground and slightly larger wheels on the back.

Car work will probably slow a bit in the next few weeks;

Football starts.